Stottie

Gale's off in the summer so no point playing him. I thought Wood would play as a relatively easy game to score in and get some confidence.

Burnley gave us our biggest win of the season, the first one. If its going to be a meaningless game for us, perhaps we could return the favour. Salvation through sacking Dyche with no replacement is also a great managerial twist.

Why would he go to a poorer club?

Yes, Everton have lost their last six away games and failed to win their last thirteen. Burnley only have one away win as well, but at least it was in 2022. Both teams play Watford away. Everton have a game in hand, but as Colo says, the fixtures mean Burnley have one more home game. One vs. three games against the Top 6 and an already better GD mean its probably advantage Burnley.

Seeing this angle in slow motion got me wondering whether Mitchell would get away with fouling Almiron here. Just after the header, and the position on the field suggests there is good chance it would not be given as DOGSO. We'd get a free kick, Mitchell would get a booking, and us fans would be denied a strong contender for our goal of the season.

The only time I can remember a team at the bottom going on an extended run of CL level form is Leicester under Pearson in the season before they won the league. They finished that year with 22 points in the last ten games. We've just gone P19 W10 D3 L6 for 33 points, equal with Chelsea under Tuchel, one point fewer than Arsenal, and two fewer than Spurs under Conte. They are all CL contenders, so our form must be CL level form over what is now half a season. We'll get some attention next week, but only because we're playing Liverpool and City and may throw a spanner in the title race. While it would be nice to see Howe getting more credit, it is also beneficial to fly under the radar and keep the expectations and pressure low. Our people did a good enough job to sign Tripper and Bruno when we were staring at relegation, and it's tempting to think that any player who wouldn't join us now due to insufficient media recognition of Howe's ability probably hasn't got the right mentality anyway.

Yeah, we've done it with their reject left back and Brighton's number three center half, not so long ago their number four, given that they sold their best one to Arsenal.

I think this is a free hit and we should change the team. Miggy has to play, because it's borderline whether we should keep him. Krafth is going that way too due to huge improvement under Howe. I'd rest ASM and play Murphy. Give Wilson some minutes if he's ready. Play Longstaff instead of Joelinton or Shelvey who both look knackered. While I'm saying "changes", I don't want to see anyone already destined to leave the club in the summer. Being safe means focusing now on next season, not hitting the beach or dabbling in sentimental send-offs for players who've been here too long already. The main one is to have a proper go with full strength at Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal, and see where we really are. I think we are already Top 8 , but our form from Jan 1 suggests we could be snapping at the Top 4/5. A team challenging for Top 4/5 needs to target much better players in the summer than one simply seeking to consolidate the Top 6-8 form we have already been achieving. Btw, this is from before last night's game, but shows where the points we have have come from. Our most recent games against the Top 6 are should have beaten Man U, matched Chelsea and denied a stonewaller, and the off-day against Spurs, so 1 point from 9 games isn't quite the full picture.

Since he took over, including the blowouts vs. Liverpool, City, and Leicester. A couple of points off fourth.

Maybe could have done with replacing Shelvey and/or Joelinton second half after their changes, both struggled to get involved, but got away with it and that's a great three points.

10th win for Howe. It took 22 games and came after zero wins in 11.

Great win. Clean sheet and look at the table!

Need fresh legs

Hard to say, because there would be more games with the pre-January squad, but he would have trained up and weeded out the existing players earlier. From the Norwich 1-1 with the Clark sending off on Dec 1 is 19 games, half a season, and the table for results since then is this.

Third top scorer now after Wilson and Maxi. From only 495 minutes on the pitch.

I think we are Wolves level already and the only issue is whether the new defensive solidity can be maintained as we add more creativity and play higher up the pitch. We've conceded more than a Wolves amount of goals under Howe, but well over half have been in blowout games where all three points were long gone. In the vast majority of Howe games, we've let in one or none. This is a major reason why we've managed all those comebacks in 2022. Before buying anyone, Trippier coming back improves us in both attack and defence, of course.

That's five home wins in a row isn't it? Fortress St. James.

Keep your pants on Bruno! What a player!

Decent in a couple of spells, just as they were. They scored from a well-worked corner and we did from a scrappy, poorly defended one. Some good work from Maxi, including passes to others who swifted effed up what were promising opportunities. More action in their box than ours, so the match is there to be won. If Targett had headed across from that clipped ball from Bruno, it would have been two-one.

Now that is weak goalkeeping. Nice one Bruno!

Ayoze playing for them.

On Five Live now covering the Atleti-Man City game. What a great lad.

This was in response to me and I have a lot of sympathy with it. It's the evolution vs. revolution debate though. Staveley etc. themselves have said that they want an evolution based approach. If the goal is for Top 6-8 next season, the bar is not that high and can be achieved through evolution of what we have. Howe has talked about team spirit across the camp. I reckon Top 6-8 can be achieved with maybe only two new first team players (attackers of course) and upgrades on Darlow, Krafth etc. To seriously challenge for Top 4, we need seven or eight new starters, which is massive investment and rips up the whole team leaving Bruno, Trippier and a few backups. Everyone else ends up in the "replace him" spotlight. We have come so far in a few short months with Howe, with a whole clearly exceeding the sum of the parts, and it would be nice to see how things can evolve further without rushing to replace Targett (as Villa did), Burn, Joelinton etc. with expensive players who may not prove to be significant upgrades. I don't think he's ultimately Top 4, but I'd like to see another season of ASM, or at least one season where he's not the team's only outball and can receive it thirty yards from their goal, not forty yards from ours. If big cash is to be spent, which I'm certainly not against, let it be on a forward or wide forward and not on a simple disruptor like Kalvin Phillips.

Since Howe's first game, Nov 20, we are eighth in the form table over what is now 20 games. One more point and a game in hand over West Ham in ninth. Twenty games is over half a season. I don't think we've been especially lucky over all twenty games. Most have been without Wilson, and the early ones had Lascelles as a starter and Joelinton as a striker, so I don't see how this twenty-game form could be dismissed as flukey or not a geniune indication of where the club currently is. I believe we are already eighth to tenth in the PL level. As the summer priority, we need to move out the deadwood, to complete the De-Ashleyfication if you like, and replace them with players capable with challenging for the first eleven. Assuming that we stick with 4-3-3, the main signings, as everyone says, should be a striker and wide forward. Targett too, but he's a given. If the initial goal is to thereabouts for a challenge for Europa League, I don't think we need wholesale changes, and would be tempted put them off until challenging for CL places becomes the goal. Spurs look like they are heading for fourth and that's with Conte, Kane, Son, .... That is streets ahead of what is at Wolves or West Ham, with a bigger jump from Spurs to West Ham than from West Ham to us. Zaha is out of contract in 2023, so he won't command an exhorbitant fee any more. He'd definitely improve the team and wouldn't look out of place at an Arsenal/Spurs level team, but is not one for the future. If the immediate goal for next season is just sixth or seventh, this would open up the possibility of using the season to bed in high-potential young players like Ekitike or that lad at Forest. The past twenty games have demonstrated that ninth is something that can be achieved with Krafth, Ryan Fraser, Murphy, pick your least favourite midfielder, and an off-form Wood up top. We're likely to have better players than all of them for the majority of games next year.

Despite losing two in a row, we still haven't conceded two in a game since Man City. Even with that game included, our record is 12 allowed in the last 12 matches. Tottenham are banging in the goals under Conte, but are still wildly inconsistent. Seven wins and five defeats in their last 12. No draws.